90,000 miles -Synthetic Oil?

[Gerard]

I reckon don't switch to synthetic if there is any sign of a oil leak on
the car as it is. When I bought my Audi 200 in '97 it had plenty signs
of oil leaking. You'd basically see a spot here or there when you get to
it after it has been standing for a while, not too heavy leaking. I
changed to some ridiculous synthetic oil and I might as well have
removed the sump and run it like that. The synthetic oil apparently has
lots of detergent compounds in it and this cleared up alot of the oil
clogs which were probably masquerading as gaskets. After that I had to
get the sump gasket and other stuff replaced.

On the brighter side, my 1995 VW Mk1 Golf 1.3 came to me with about
60,000 miles on it and at the first service I put in some Shell Helix
synthetic oil. Fantastic stuff, not a drop of oil anywhere. I have
exceeded the current service interval by about 1000 miles so the
sluggishness is starting to show, but it still goes well. Can't say I've
seen a major improvement in mileage (it still sucks for a 1.3 litre
engine), but no hassles whatsoever when starting up on winter mornings.

If you've done the services on the normal oil at regular intervals then
perhaps it'd be fine.

G.